458 SOCOM build on a Ruger American

[southernpew]

Mocked up with no trigger, because the action won’t fit in my vise with the trigger installed. This scope will do for a little while, but I will be upgrading the scope and mount eventually.

Hope it easy to set the headspace so I can shoot this thing finally

 

[Pauerpilot]

That looks awesome!

 

[southernpew]

That looks awesome!

Thanks! Im very excited to launch some lead through this

 

[thomasj]

I ordered the oryx with the green panels

 

[thomasj]

How long did it take you guys to get your go/no go gauges I ordered a set from pacific tool and gauge on Dec 8th and emailed them in hopes of getting an ETA and haven’t received a response yet. Still haven’t received my barrel yet either but an ETA would still be nice.

 

[southernpew]

You would have to ask @Pauerpilot. He bought a set. He sent me his to set my headspace. I just set mine and I’m going to shoot it Friday to confirm it is all good to go, then I will be shipping them back to him with goodies to show my appreciation!
That’s over $100 in gauges and he doesn’t know me from Adam. That’s an amazing stand out guy in my book!

 

[Pauerpilot]

How long did it take you guys to get your go/no go gauges I ordered a set from pacific tool and gauge on Dec 8th and emailed them in hopes of getting an ETA and haven’t received a response yet. Still haven’t received my barrel yet either but an ETA would still be nice.

I purchased their last set. I was told that they are not routinely making them. All the sets were earmarked for military contracts. I have no idea if they are making special order sets. I hope this helps.

With that being said, it is important to set the headspace on the rifle. It costs too much money to do things incorrectly. I have offered the use of the gauges here. The gauges can be a pain in the ass to get. I figure as long as people are trust worthy (so far most have been) I am happy to provide these tools to get the project completed correctly and with minimal fuss.

Let me know if you need to use them.

Al

 

[thomasj]

I purchased their last set. I was told that they are not routinely making them. All the sets were earmarked for military contracts. I have no idea if they are making special order sets. I hope this helps.

With that being said, it is important to set the headspace on the rifle. It costs too much money to do things incorrectly. I have offered the use of the gauges here. The gauges can be a pain in the ass to get. I figure as long as people are trust worthy (so far most have been) I am happy to provide these tools to get the project completed correctly and with minimal fuss.

Let me know if you need to use them.

Al

Okay I’ll let you know. I’m hoping they send them to me since I paid for them

I purchased their last set. I was told that they are not routinely making them. All the sets were earmarked for military contracts. I have no idea if they are making special order sets. I hope this helps.

With that being said, it is important to set the headspace on the rifle. It costs too much money to do things incorrectly. I have offered the use of the gauges here. The gauges can be a pain in the ass to get. I figure as long as people are trust worthy (so far most have been) I am happy to provide these tools to get the project completed correctly and with minimal fuss.

Let me know if you need to use them.

Al

okay well I sure hope they send them since I’ve paid them for them. I’ll call them and see what they say when I get a chance. Thanks for the offer if they don’t send them I’ll have to take you up on that.

 

[thomasj]

Update. I called and the woman I spoke with said they are doing another run soon but she didn’t have an exact ETA. Said they are working with a skeleton crew everyone has the flu. But she’s supposed to give me a call back as soon as she figures something out.

 

[southernpew]

Awesome! I may need to order a go gauge at a minimum. Just to have one on hand incase I want to try to build an SBR (Q Mini-Fix) like rifle

 

[CharcaolMoon]

I've been looking into building a 458 bolt gun for a while now and stumbled across this exceedingly helpful thread. Question is has anyone tried using a 308 or 6.5 creedmoor as the base rifle since they share the .473 rim size? And does the donor rifle need to be a ranch rifle or can a regular American be used as long as the new barrel and stock are designed to take ar mags. I haven't seen a 450 bushmaster in a while but I can pick up a ruger in the other calibers any day of the week used for a good price.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[southernpew]

I've been looking into building a 458 bolt gun for a while now and stumbled across this exceedingly helpful thread. Question is has anyone tried using a 308 or 6.5 creedmoor as the base rifle since they share the .473 rim size? And does the donor rifle need to be a ranch rifle or can a regular American be used as long as the new barrel and stock are designed to take ar mags. I haven't seen a 450 bushmaster in a while but I can pick up a ruger in the other calibers any day of the week used for a good price.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Doesn’t have to be a Ranch. The 308 rifle should work (bolt wise)
I’m not 100% on the feeding from the magazine. I have some 308 AICS mags and they are way too long for these short rounds. I do have some 6BR AICS magazines that they would probably feed out of.
But you can order a 450 Bushmaster from DeGuns.net for $409. That’s where I ordered mine. Was the cheapest I found anywhere.

Added the new bolt handle and bolt cover. Besides scope this thing is finally done!

 

[CharcaolMoon]

My plan was to convert to AR pattern mags via a chassis system. but you can feed 458 out of a metal AICS mag with tweaked feed lips. Id like the ability to use AR mags though since I have my 458 AR with me most days. That build looks awesome!

 

[thomasj]

I

Doesn’t have to be a Ranch. The 308 rifle should work (bolt wise)
I’m not 100% on the feeding from the magazine. I have some 308 AICS mags and they are way too long for these short rounds. I do have some 6BR AICS magazines that they would probably feed out of.
But you can order a 450 Bushmaster from DeGuns.net for $409. That’s where I ordered mine. Was the cheapest I found anywhere.

Added the new bolt handle and bolt cover. Besides scope this thing is finally done!

View attachment 15906

I haven’t decided what scope I want to run yet

 

[southernpew]

My plan was to convert to AR pattern mags via a chassis system. but you can feed 458 out of a metal AICS mag with tweaked feed lips. Id like the ability to use AR mags though since I have my 458 AR with me most days. That build looks awesome!

I actually have a Ruger American MDT AICS chassis. I will swap it and see if it will cycle out of the AICS mags. I do not believe it will because of the mag length, but I am curious too

 

[Pauerpilot]

The reason for the 450 BM Ranch Rifle is no bolt work. The ejection area is open enough to eject the 458 casing. Also the feeding of the round and round presentation offered the least gun smithing work if any at all. Also the action fits perfectly the MDT chassis system that uses standard AR mags. It is the least tuning for the lowest price that a person can do at home. I gun smith quite a bit. This was an exercise to see how to build a rifle as cost effectively as possible with the least tweaking. I have looked at several other options. I tried Remington 700 actions and they have NOT reliably ejected the spent casings. Some material needed to be removed to get reliability. That costs time and money. The lower metal needs to be tweaked to offer the best presentation of the round to reliably feed in the same action. Again, more time and money. I looked at magazine selection as well. Do AICS work? Yes they do but MAY require some tweaking to get them to work. The result, more time and money. Is the Ruger American Ranch Rifle the best action out there? No. Is the Ranch Rifle action the best option for time and money? So far my experience says yes. Whatever the case, I had fun looking into this project and bringing it here. Be safe and have fun!!

YMMV!!

Al

 

[Pauerpilot]

Doesn’t have to be a Ranch. The 308 rifle should work (bolt wise)
I’m not 100% on the feeding from the magazine. I have some 308 AICS mags and they are way too long for these short rounds. I do have some 6BR AICS magazines that they would probably feed out of.
But you can order a 450 Bushmaster from DeGuns.net for $409. That’s where I ordered mine. Was the cheapest I found anywhere.

Added the new bolt handle and bolt cover. Besides scope this thing is finally done!

View attachment 15906

Sweet! I am still waiting for my Primal 461! Any day now!!

 

[CharcaolMoon]

Thanks for the summary! I settled on the ruger for the same reasons, since the bolt face on the 308 and derivative cartridges is the same is the issue with them the size of the ejection port? I am also looking at this as budget mindedly as I can, hoping to use it as a walk around rifle for wild hogs on my family farm.

 

[southernpew]

Thanks for the summary! I settled on the ruger for the same reasons, since the bolt face on the 308 and derivative cartridges is the same is the issue with them the size of the ejection port? I am also looking at this as budget mindedly as I can, hoping to use it as a walk around rifle for wild hogs on my family farm.

To be budget friendly, and lighter to carry around the woods, you do know that you don’t have to go MDT to swap it to AR mags right? You can just as easily contact Ruger and purchase the AR magwell, install that and run AR magazines in the Ruger stock

 

[CharcaolMoon]

To be budget friendly, and lighter to carry around the woods, you do know that you don’t have to go MDT to swap it to AR mags right? You can just as easily contact Ruger and purchase the AR magwell, install that and run AR magazines in the Ruger stock

I did not! Thanks for the heads up definitely sounds lighter in hand and wallet.